The Official Selection will be unveiled on April 18; but in the meantime, the Festival de Cannes is preparing to welcome film professionals from all over the world to its Marché du Film. The world’s leading film market and also the oldest, celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2019. The event is thriving: a sign of how positive the figures for this year’s festival are.

Created at the 1959 Cannes International Film Festival, the Marché du Film is now the indispensable venue for negotiations about most productions distributed in theatres, on television, at festivals or on internet platforms.

At that time, it started out in an informal, low-key way. There were a few dozen participants and one projection room made of wood and canvas on the roof of the old Palais, on the Croisette which held about twenty people. But it created an immediate buzz. Many producers, distributers and exporters met through the sale and acquisition of rights and productions. Cinemas on the Rue d’Antibes were hired for the occasion. By the late 1950s, the newspapers reported: “The Festival de Cannes begins this week. As much business will be done there as in six months of normal professional life in Paris.”

Bolstered by its success, the “Marché International du Film” was officially integrated into the Festival de Cannes on May 10, 1961. This worried those who were keen to preserve the glamour of the red carpet: “Cannes is committing suicide. It is doomed in its current format. In another two or three years, it will be no more than a film market,” they said. However this economical approach opened new development horizons for the Festival. Very soon it was apparent there were strong connections with the industry, that their fates and their future exploits were closely linked. They continue to be so today: the Marché du Film often shows itself to be the adventurous side of the Festival.Christine Aime.